“The mountain peaks belong to Him!”
Psalm 95:4
Jesus is crazy! (In a good way!) He legit blew my mind this week! He showed up and poured Himself out on us as a group and as individuals. He poured Himself out on a very special family and changed so many lives forever. He didn’t just meet us the first day and then leave us on our own; He just kept showing up and kept showing His character, His heart, and His ways. As long as we were hungry and thirsty for Him and going to Him for everything, He met us -over and over again. That’s the key: Expect God to be God and you will surely find Him. Jeremiah 29:12-14 (the Message) says, “When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen. When you come looking for me, you’ll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” The gospel of Luke also reminds us, “ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9 NIV)
The message/theme from this trip is good for anyone with a tendency to doubt God. You can’t doubt God when during prayer the first day the Lord tells several people “railroad” and “tower” and we set out in our van in a town we have never been in much less heard of to find this railroad and tower the Lord is talking about. With those two words and our fearless van driver, God led us straight to John and Debbie. As they unfolded their story, God unfolded the plan He had for all of us that week.
You can’t doubt God when Cody and his family had gone to so many people for help, but they couldn’t find the help they were seeking. On Friday morning (the first morning of our trip), Cody had asked for help yet again and said he needed about forty people to help him. That afternoon, we showed up at Cody’s house saying we have forty people who would love to help him clean up his land. See, God found the Goins family. God found them in a way so specific and crazy that you can’t deny it.
You can’t doubt God when you and your friend Leanne follow Jesus on what could be thought of as a wild goose chase and end up sitting in the living room of a 70-80 year old woman who tells you how she rebuked an F5 tornado in the name of Jesus and it obeyed her because she has the authority and power of Jesus in her. Jesus told us, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do evengreaterthingsthanthese, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”(John 14:12-14 NIV)
You can’t doubt God when there is a huge pile of rubble right in front of you where Spencer’s house used to stand but he is telling you how he and three of his family members were able to walk out of that rubble after the tornado passed. (He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. Psalm 40:2)
So based on God’s faithfulness and marvelous works, let’s believe and not doubt “because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:6 NIV) Let’s continue expecting God to be God and to do the things that only He can do.
-Emily
